RLWP

Splendid, we specialise in the repair of old Lister engines. If you want an idea of what that might cost, give Sue a ring on Monday. 01926 356200 Richard

The obvious solution would be to remove the engine. What engine is it? Richard

That's my thought too. I'm interested to see what the old rods are like Richard

Flush it through a few times in alternating directions to make sure it isn't blocked. Also flush the tank out as much as you can If the boat has a skin tank you don't really need a heat exchanger. I presume the rubber pump rotor is OK? Richard

It needs violence to remove it - and be careful. The cap will probably be OK, if you strain the heat exchanger you'll make the tubes leak, and the shell is alloy and probably corroded. Don't be surprised if the flanges come off Why do you want to dismantle it? Richard

Fuel pump door joint. If you are lucky, we have some old 'card' ones about which are far easier to fit Richard

Makes a change. Usually I find old Lister masquerading as other old Listers due to parts being swapped around

That is not a Lister Alpha Richard

It is not unusual to find these engines installed with the skin tank on the port side, which is fine for the water outlet, calorifier and so on. The water inlet is on the starboard side above the flywheel housing through the oil cooler, which means there has to be a pipe going from one side to the other above the gearbox. Popular choices are lengths of hose or copper pipe fabrications These are fine, they can put strain on the oil cooler end cap which it isn't really designed for. Mind you, it isn't hard to attach the feed pipe to the oil cooler with cable ties in the absence of a more engineering solution Richard

I was reflecting on this on the way home. The end cap on the oil cooler will be what caused the initial overheating. They are ok, but not really designed to support a length of water hose bouncing up and down The gasket failure happened exactly where the wrong head bolt had been fitted. Instead of the bolt with a small stud on top to support the dual alternator bracket, a plain bolt had been used - and tightened down hard distorting the bracket, which then bent and came loose I suspect the tappet fell apart when the pushrod was removed - that's a new one on me! And the broken spring on the fuel pump has probably been there for ages Also, the fresh water mussels in the Slough arm are magnificent! Richard I didn't have any tappets with me, unfortunately. We were out of stock

And annoyingly it could be a hose that looks round, but the inside layer of tube collapses. Of course, such hoses are always in the most inconvenient place Richard

I was expecting to see something like the cap above. The central disk is the anti vacuum valve: Richard

Could you send a picture of the cap side-on? Richard

Oh blimey - I've been keeping up with the other engine problem and skipping this one. I'll have to read back to see what's going on Thanks Tony Richard Have you come across the folklore engineering solution of removing the thremostat applied to an Alpha? First off, no water will come out of the outlet pipes (there you go mate, your pumps knackered) Secondly, the engine boils really quickly. Richard THIS^^^ I can't see the anti-vacuum part of that cap. Without one it won't draw coolant back On our BMC, I always leave an air space in the manifold tank Richard

Apologies, I haven't been paying attention - what's the question? Richard

And to reinforce what everyone else has already said - they are difficult to bleed. Especially if you've not done one of these before The 1.5 is worse... Richard

If i can find an old pump, yes. I'll have a look Richard

Or you need a spring Richard Then they spring back to full length It's much easier to follow the other instruction in the manual and wait 30-45 minutes before trying to turn the engine over after fitting them. In practice, unless your in a race pit it takes longer than that to reassemble the engine to the point it will run Richard

If you are really lucky, it will have a modern replacement It's made of black nylon Richard

Shims are available, and the shimming instructions are in the manual We always skim heads To remove the pumps, push the stop lever across to the stop position, that aligns the lever with the hole in the casting to remove them. Unless you want to reset them which needs a special tool, best to remove them one at at time and put the pump back when you've finished with it. Stop lever to stop, put the pup in and twist anticlockwise before clamping down. It often isn't that easy... Email received, I'll get Sue to call you Richard

You can always ask! We do lots of work with Alphas, I'd be up for having a look at this one Richard

The difference is direct and indirect injection, so different heads and injectors. The rest of the engine is the same The lifters are the same as in Fords and the Rover V8 Richard

Me! Richard

We are starting to see LPW engines where the spring that joins the rack to the governor breaks - the hook on the end of the spring wears through. Makes the engine sort of uncontrollable Richard

I've stopped using Twitter I'm afraid. It's an Elon Musk thing...